Foreign Minister Lieberman says top Bosnian official promised him Sarajevo will not vote in favor of Palestinian Authority's statehood bid

Ronen Medzini |Published: 28.10.11 , 19:36

With two weeks to go until the UN Security Council
resumes its deliberations over the Palestinian statehood bid,
Foreign Ministry sources told Ynet that Bosnia-Herzegovina, which a currently a non-permanent member of the UNSC, will not vote in favor of the PA's request.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman,
who is currently on a state visit to Sarajevo, met Friday with the prime minister of Bosnia's Republika Srpska (RS), who assured him that "Srpska's position on the matter is definite and will not change. We will oppose the move. Only negotiations can resolve the (Israeli-Palestinian) issues, not unilateral steps."

About half of Bosnia's population is Muslim. Its vote in the UN Security Council is one of nine Israel
and the Palestinians are vying for. The Palestinians need the support of at least nine of the Council's members to further their bid.

The US, which along with China, France, Russia and the UK is one of the five permanent members of the UNSC, has already announced that should the Council vote in favor of the PA's bid, it will use its veto power
to quash it.

While in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lieberman met with all three member of the country's Presidency. "I found support and understanding in Srpska. They understand the meaning of a unilateral move like this and the precedent that it will create in the international area," he said.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki
also arrived in Sarajevo in an attempt to sway Bosnia's vote the Palestinian way.

Lieberman reportedly called on al-Malki to use their mutual location to confer, using the Presidency as a mediator: "Israel's proposal to the Palestinians is clear – direct negotiations, to begin immediately and with no preconditions," he said.

"It's the only way to reach an agreement and give peace a chance. Any attempt to establish a Palestinian state in any other way could only aggravate the conflict," Lieberman concluded.